


Spectrum

by TamaraHeartz



Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Denial, Drabble Collection, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 15:51:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16684555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TamaraHeartz/pseuds/TamaraHeartz
Summary: Things left unsaid.





	Spectrum

**01.**

  
Black and white. That’s what he was. From beginning to end, that’s what he believed. That’s what he saw. Even after the end, when he walked out with his dignity and pride as a doctor sacrificed for something he couldn’t save, he got engulfed in them. They became an inseparable part of his entity, surrounding him through everything.

  
X-ray reports? Black and white. Ultrasound reports? Black and white. His hospital walls? Weary, tainted seashell white. The nightmares that regularly visited him? The obscurest shade of terror imaginable.

  
Maybe that’s why he ended up being so bitter and lusterless, losing his charm and urge to cheer up every patient. The shades around him bedimmed his persona, ruined his traits and left an empty shell of the broken man he was now. It didn’t matter how many times he wanted to switch back. It didn’t matter how much he tried to revert to who he was before. He was too guilty in others eyes, too blackened out by everyone to start a life again.

  
Until she barged in.

Like a wide and generous spectrum streaming through the old walls, she brought along a burst of glitzy colors, breaking his shields into a thousand little pieces. She was bright, loud and obnoxious. Bold hues defined her; tearing through the darkness, she declared her entity – resplendent and lustrous as the morning sun, freshly mowed grass and the afternoon sky.

  
They were a perfect match.

 

 

**02.**

  
Loneliness had never been an issue for him.

  
Back when he still had a job – a legal one, that is – he’d always be too busy working to notice his lack of acquaintances. His interactions were limited to his colleagues, considering he was always too exhausted to hang out with anybody after work. He’d spend his weekends and holidays studying up new cases and illness and medical journals, locked up in his place with a bag of takeout and a can of soda, a pen in his hand and medical terms storming through his mind.

  
He has had one or two girlfriends back in high school and college, but none of them lasted long enough to be considered a proper relationship. His only source of joy? Adrenaline-pumping cases.

  
Nerd.

  
After his license got revoked, he was too outraged, too victimized by humanity to even consider the company of others. He stuck to his profession – because of course he loved being a doctor, even though he’d rather die than admit that – pokerfaced; never showing any concern for his patients, never offering them a comforting smile , because if he could learn it the hard way, then why couldn’t they?

  
And then came Nico.

  
He realized it at that point – he had forgotten what it was like to walk next to someone, memorizing their pace so that he would leave her too far behind (or the other way around, in their case); he had forgotten what it was like to laugh at something and have someone else’s laugh echo with his own; he had forgotten what it was like to have a constant presence around him, even if she annoyed him to no end; he had forgotten what it was like to hear someone saying _okaeri_ to his _tada ima_ ; he had forgotten what to was like to let go, even if just for the split of a second.

  
Loneliness had never been an issue for him until she came along.

 

 

**03.**

  
She was just a patient.

  
He thought he had made it clear to everyone. To Ex-Aid when he accused him of being concerned about her wellbeing. To Lovelica – in his head, though – when he tried to label them as the couple. To Lazer when he returned as a bugster and started spouting all these nonsense about them being…whatever he was trying to imply there – honestly, was he blind? It was obvious everything between them was strictly professional. To Brave when he’d dash out of character and put his own words in Taiga’s mouth – _isn’t there something you don’t want to lose_ – just because he lacked romance in his own life.

  
And boy oh boy, that cheeky joke of a bugster – Poppy Pipopapo. She’d always talk as if something was going on between him and Nico so casually, he couldn’t even voice up a protest. He felt as though he’d end up embarrassing himself, so he’d always settle with a glare. Not that it ever had any effect on her; she’d get encouraged even further, for some reason.

  
There were times when Taiga let himself take a moment and think about what everyone said…well, accused them of. If he was being brutally honest, he didn’t have any problems with her being a patient. It seemed something like their thing. Okay, so maybe she was a long term patient. She got infected thrice, after all. And he only freaked out the last time because he didn’t want yet another death on him.

  
There you go. It was decided.

  
She was just his patient.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time posting something on this site so hope you enjoyed!


End file.
